Read This: Your Purpose In a Network.

We all know how very 24/7 social media is.

Whether you’re a community manager for an internal network or you’re focusing on Facebook and Twitter, you know that somebody is out there somewhere, paying attention to what you’re posting.

Well, if you’ve got a good plan in place, they are.

Oddly enough, this dude is all over finance sites, but I couldn’t resist. Seen on http://blogs.wsj.com.

Defining Your Purpose in a Network

That’s why you need to read this awesome post by Simon Terry. He’s a fellow Microsoft MVP.

He also gets you right between the eyes within the first few moments: “What is the purpose of your work and leadership in the networks around you?”

If you’re struggling with leadership wanting to keep things rigid and traditional, or if you just want to hone your approach to social management and get some great insight, click right now.

Tiny Review So I Won’t Spoil It

I certainly won’t pretend to know everything about everything, so I have to say that this is the first time I’ve seen the term “wirearchy.”

I love it. I must adopt it into my own lexicon.

And it’s so true what Simon outlines: Defining your purpose online is as important as it is offline.

Work is work whether you’re face-to-face or you’re having a conversation online.

We can’t afford to ignore the conversations our customers are having right now all around us in favor of traditional, stifling processes, from keeping bums-on-seats instead of letting people work remotely, to outlawing all social outreach.

And the flip side is that being out on social or in a community just because your customers are there, and NOT having a plan, can do more harm than if you weren’t out there at all!

Source: Me, because when I got to my company and took over their Twitter account, we’d been blacklisted because our Twitter consisted solely of a WordPress feed, which made us look like a bot. Yikes!